The reason Google Assistant (that's the product you invoke when you say "OK Google" to your device) works reasonably well is that the Pygmalion team -- a small army of linguists -- work long hours handcrafting variations on common phrases ("set a timer for five minutes," "remind me in five minutes," "in five minutes, remind me...") and grammars that allow the system to correctly respond to your queries.These linguists (who have to have at least a bachelor's degree, though many have attained master's degrees and doctorates) are not googlers, though: they are contracted to Google by an employment agencies, including Adecco. That means that even though they work on the same campuses as Google employees and ride the same Google Bus to get to work, they only receive a fraction of the wages and benefits that employees earn, and they're not even allowed to use the wifi on the Google Bus during hours-long commutes.But that's just for starters. The Google Assistant linguists say that their googler supervisors used the dangled promise of being hired by the company to bully them into working huge amounts of off-the-clock overtime, to hit performance metrics that would be considered when they applied for full-time work. Googlers who spoke anonymously to Julia Carrie Wong for The Guardian said that they were tacitly incentivized to get unpaid work out of contractors, and were open mocked when they raised concerns about the ethics of the situation.Some contract linguists reasoned that the unpaid overtime was a trade-off against being able to list Google on their resumes in future jobs, only to discover that the fine-print in their contracts stipulated that they couldn't do that, instead, they'd have to say they worked at "Google by Adecco."Google and Adecco have launched investigations into allegations of unpaid overtime -- which is a form of wage theft and illegal under federal labor law -- and have called on contractors who worked unpaid hours to submit time-sheets for compensation. Read the rest

When you grind coffee beans, you want to use a burr grinder, not a blade grinder. Burr grinders break the beans into uniformly sized chunks, unlike blade grinders, which slice the beans into pieces of widely varying size. I've had my Capresso Infinity Conical Burr for over 10 years and it's still working like a champ. It's on sale on Amazon today for Read the rest

According to a widely reported rumor -- first published by the WSJ -- the DoJ is preparing to launch an antitrust probe of Google, though it's not clear on what basis such a probe would proceed.Google is already under a 2013 FTC consent decree for anticompetitive behavior, under whose terms the company is required to fairly license its mobile patents, improve the management tools on its ad platforms, and refrain from using its control over the ad and search platform to prioritize its products and services over those of rivals.Since the Reagan era, American antitrust regulators have been hamstrung by the ideology of failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, who invented an imaginary legislative history of antitrust law that required that antitrust action only be taken when companies were raising prices for consumers in the short term, and not to prevent monopolies and anticompetitive behavior in general.This rule has made the wealthiest Americans much wealthier, and in general it's hard to imagine the Trump administration (or any Republican administration) reversing it. However, concentration in the online sector has resulted in widespread "no-platforming" of far-right darlings, who are, in turn, just the latest victims of no-platforming (the technique was pioneered on sex worker activists, trans activists, indigenous rights activists, Black Lives Matter activists, etc). This has set up an odd tension within the right: on the one hand, they don't want to stop the gravy train that monopoly profits represent for shareholders, but on the other hand, they're not happy that five or six tech execs can simply banish right wing blowhards from the public discourse. Read the rest

Veritasium visited Dr. Stephen Steiner at Aerogel Technologies in Massachusetts to learn about the wonders of silica aerogel, a solid that is only twice as dense as air. My sister gave me a small chunk of aerogel about 10 years ago and it's one of my favorite possessions. Read the rest

A family in Edinburgh had this curious medieval chess piece, mostly tucked in a drawer, for more than 50 years since the grandfather, an antiques dealer, bought it for £5. Recently, his granddaughter had it appraised at Sotheby's where it was identified as one of the five missing pieces from the historically significant Lewis Chessmen from the late 12th/early 13th century and dug up on the Isle of Lewis in 1831. The single piece is expected to fetch £1 million at auction. The rest of the set is held by the British Museum and the National Museum of Scotland. From the BBC News:They are seen as an "important symbol of European civilisation" and have also seeped into popular culture, inspiring everything from children's show Noggin The Nog to part of the plot in Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone...The newly-discovered piece is a warder, a man with helmet, shield and sword and the equivalent of a rook on a modern chess board, which "has immense character and power..."The discovery of the hoard (of pieces) remains shrouded in mystery, with stories of it being dug up by a cow grazing on sandy banks.It is thought it was buried shortly after the objects were made, possibly by a merchant to avoid taxes after being shipwrecked, and so remained underground for 500 years. Read the rest

Tech reporter and sf writer Brian Merchant (previously) calls our attention to the peculiar construction of the problem statement in articles about automation and obsolescence, in which "robots are coming to steal your job."The thing is robots don't (yet) autonomously arrange to show up at your workplace, uninvited, and take your job. Instead, your boss entertains sales calls (or solicits them!) from companies who want to see your work replaced with a robot, and then your boss makes a decision about whether that replacement will come with an equitable sharing of the fruits of automation (shorter hours and higher pay all around!) or whether they will be hoarded by the forces of capital ("sorry, the robot stole your job, nothing I can do about it").The particular, passive, third-person construction ("your job has been stolen by a robot") is a potent deflector shield for blame and class-based rage, but it's hard to believe that it will be powerful enough to fight off the (inevitable) guillotines.Only a little more convincing is the related premise: "I bought a robot to do your job because the shareholders made me" (and the less-heard, equally thin, "I voted my shares to hire a boss who would give your job to a robot because if I wasn't rich, I would be poor and then a robot would take my job"). There is an artificial lifeform behind all this: the slow AIs of limited liability companies, who use us weak humans as inconvenient gut flora. Read the rest

By changing the luminance around the edges of the diamond and the background, you can make it look as though the diamond is moving up, down, right, or left. From a paper in i-Perception titled, "The Perpetual Diamond: Contrast Reversals Along Thin Edges Create the Appearance of Motion in Objects."by Oliver J. Flynn and Arthur G. Shapiro. Read the rest

From Smithsonian Channel's "Great Blue Wild: Life in the Muck:"The speed of a hairy frogfish’s bite is the result of a vacuum in its mouth that can suck in its prey in just 1/6000th of a second. It’s so fast that even slow-motion video struggles to capture it. Read the rest

The Oakland Public Library will no longer charge late fees and fines for books, because they don't incentive people to return books more quickly, it costs the library more money to process fines and fees than the revenue they generate, and fines and fees discourage people from using the library.From KQED:"It's a barrier that's unnecessary," said Library Director Jamie Turbak. "There's no impact to the rate of returned items when you eliminate overdue fines, so charging people fines more likely prevents them from using the library at all."Under the old system, late fees ranged from 25 cents to $1 per day. If someone accrued $50 or more in fines, they could not borrow additional materials until the amount was paid down to less than $50. The library brought in $77,600 in late fees in the last fiscal year, but Turbak said it cost the library twice that to process the fines.According to Turbak, a city analysis found that adults living in predominantly non-white zip codes were 5% more likely to have their account blocked due to fines, 26% more likely to owe fines and 45% less likely to use their library cards, even though many more of them had library cards.By Msuner - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link Read the rest

Another incredible deepfake execution. Ctrl Shift Face reports that his videos are demonetized due to ContentID claims by the original filmmakers: "Since I cannot monetize any my videos on youtube because of copyright claims, please consider supporting me on patreon. You'll gain access to a ton of exclusive content and also help this channel to survive. Thank you."A particularly uncanny thing about how deepfake works is that it isn't the 1992 Stallone you might expect to see, but an ageless metastallone comprising elements of every age of Stallone. Read the rest

Canuck probably hangs with a pretty tough murder.CBC:Canuck the crow, Vancouver's most notorious bird, is being accused of flying away with a knife from a crime scene.The crow has quite a reputation in Vancouver and its antics are regularly chronicled on social media, including a dedicated Facebook page that has a profile photo of the bird holding a knife in its beak.Earlier on Tuesday, police had shot a man near Hastings and Cassiar streets. They were called to the scene of a car engulfed in flames. When they arrived, police said, they were confronted by a man with a knife.Shots were fired and the man was arrested.Vancouver Courier reporter Mike Howell said he saw the bird — which had a red tag on its leg as does Canuck — swoop in and pick up an object from inside an area cordoned off by police tape."A cop chased it for about 15 to 20 feet, and then the crow dropped it and took off," Howell told CBC."It was really strange. In my 20-plus years reporting from crime scenes, I've never seen anything like that crow trying to take a knife." Read the rest

Spanish YouTube sensation Kanghua Ren (aka ReSet) thought it would be funny to give a homeless man an Oreo cookie with a toothpaste filling. The video showed the man eating the cookie and vomiting afterwards. Many people who watched the video were disgusted and ReSet found himself on the receiving end of a shame campaign. After trying to buy his way out of trouble, ReSet was arrested and tried. He explained to the judge that the cruel stunt wasn't really his fault, but that he was only giving his audience what they demanded: “I do things to mount a show: People like what is morbid,” he said.From The New York Times:Mr. Ren, who was 19 at the time, filmed himself in early 2017 replacing the cream inside the cookies with toothpaste after being challenged by one of his 1.2 million followers to carry out the prank. He gave them to the homeless man outside a supermarket, along with a €20 bill. The homeless man was identified only as Gheorge L., a man in his early 50s who was born in Romania and who once worked as a shepherd before migrating to Barcelona, according to the newspaper El País. The homeless man vomited after eating the cookie.After the posting of the video prompted widespread condemnation, Mr. Ren replaced it with one in which he visited the homeless man again and offered him another €20 bill. According to the police, he later offered €300 to the daughter of his victim in return for not filing a lawsuit. Read the rest

I did not realize this existed.To spoof the "Special Edition" re-release of Star Wars in 1997, which included additional scenes and more advanced digital special effects, Hardware Wars was re-released on VHS as a twenty-minute "Special Edition," with new digital "special defects." Fosselius did not participate or approve of this release, as noted in a disclaimer on the packaging.The new digital effects in no way improve either film. Read the rest

This is a fantastic short documentary on Teddy the Great Pyrenees. Teddy is a working livestock guardian, as opposed to my Great Pyr Nemo, who is a big walking carpet. Read the rest

In this clip, an Englishman circa 800 A.D. is asked to chatter about his life. He understands the eallníwe léasspellung but prefers the old talk.A fun little thing to show reconstructed pronunciation of textbook Old English in a casual setting. I've tried to throw in a few natural abbreviations (for example 'c rather than ic), but I know I missed the mark on one or two of the diphthongs. Either way, hopefully this gives some idea as to how the language sounded in casual speech. Message or comment if you'd like any clarifications, want to correct me on anything, or if you're just interested in the topic and would like to know more! I didn't have any decent Anglo-Saxon clothing... Read the rest

An increase of 41 measles cases were reported in the United States from the previous week. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says it's the largest number of measles cases reported in the country since 1992, and the largest since measles was declared eradicated almost two decades ago in 2000.From the CDC report, here's a map and a rundown of all the U.S. “States with Reported Measles Cases2019 ** (as of May 31, 2019)” —-The states that have reported cases to CDC are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington.The CDC says measles outbreaks (defined as 3 or more cases) are currently ongoing in 2019 in the following jurisdictions:New York State, Rockland CountyNew York CityMichiganCalifornia, Butte CountyCalifornia, LA CountyCalifornia, Sacramento CountyGeorgiaMarylandPennsylvaniaWashingtonThese outbreaks are linked to travelers who brought measles back from other countries such as Israel, Ukraine, and the Philippines, where large measles outbreaks are occurring.[via @W7VOA, photo: SHUTTERSTOCK] Read the rest

A mom in Brazil became concerned as she watched the viewing numbers on innocent backyard clip her daughter posted to YouTube suddenly climb hundreds of thousands of views. The child posted a video of herself and a friend playing in the family pool. YouTube's recommendation engine had been suggesting the video as recommended content to viewers who'd just watched other videos that contained sexually oriented video content. YouTube's AI sexualized her kid and pushed her image to pedophiles. This happens a lot, apparently.“YouTube’s algorithm has been curating home movies of unwitting families into a catalog of semi-nude kids,” tweeted Max Fisher at the New York Times.“YT often plays the videos after users watch softcore porn, building an audience of millions for what experts call child sexual exploitation.”“I asked YouTube— why not just turn off recommendations on videos of kids? Your system can already identify videos of kids automatically,” says Fisher.“The recommendation algorithm is driving this whole child exploitation phenomenon. Switching it off would solve the problem and keep kids safe.”YouTube's CEO is a woman, Susan Wojcicki.From Max Fisher and Amanda Taub at the New York Times:YouTube’s automated recommendation system — which drives most of the platform’s billions of views by suggesting what users should watch next — had begun showing the video to users who watched other videos of prepubescent, partially clothed children, a team of researchers has found.YouTube had curated the videos from across its archives, at times plucking out the otherwise innocuous home movies of unwitting families, the researchers say. Read the rest

This 'Star Wars Millennium Falcon approaches the Death Star' sunshade gets me a lot of compliments.I have found notes under my wiper blades telling me everything from "That's no moon!" to "Let the Wookie win!"I love this sunshade and it has mostly held up for 4 years. There has been some fading and separation of the plastic layers, but it works just fine to keep the car cool and entertaining.Plasticolor 003700R01 Star Wars Accordion Sunshade via Amazon Read the rest

Ford developing a race car to defeat Ferrari at Le Mans is a wonderful story.Whenever I wear my Gulf Oil/Le Mans racing jacket people stop me to talk about this Steve McQueen movie. I never get tired of it. Read the rest

Here's James Burke reporting on the 20th August 1977 launch of Voyager 2. It ends with an amazing 20-second shot that would be ridiculously difficult to execute with a modern journalistic workflow, but so easy to fake you'd never trust it even if they did.One chance, and if James Burke had missed, there would have been no chance of a re-shoot. Taken from Connections(1978), Episode 8, "Eat, Drink and be Merry". Copyright BBC, starring James Burke.His sign-off, "destination Moon ... or Moscow," is really something! [via @Rainmaker1973]James Burke had only one chance to nail this scene. A clip from the 1978 BBC television show Connections, season 1, episode 8, “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry” which could be considered the best timed shot in television history https://t.co/lI8g0g1uji pic.twitter.com/o8MQrLPs6M— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 1, 2019 Read the rest

Axios reporter Jonathan Swan has a reputation as a fawning interviewer, but he made Trump son-in-law and nepotism hire Jared Kushner very uncomfortable this weekend. A particularly excruciating moment:Q) Has Trump ever said anything racist?KUSHNER: “Absolutely not. You can’t not be a racist for 69 years then run for president and be a racist.”Q) Was Birtherism racist?KUSHNER: “Um, look I wasn’t really involved in that...that was a long time ago.”pic.twitter.com/GzdB9pafCi— Waleed Shahid (@_waleedshahid) June 2, 2019The classic example of this interviewing technique — "repeat the question to highlight a comically evasive answer" — is embedded below. It's the BBC's Jeremy Paxman grilling UK politician Michael Howard. Action starts four minutes in.Paxman vs. Howard is a well-loved performance, but the reason you don't see this technique every day is not because cable news interviews are softball (though they are). It's because a well-prepared interview subject can really punish it with a good answer. It's a haymaker, the crudest possible follow-up question, for use against someone forced by circumstances or stupidity to leap into your fist over and over again.Props to Swan, though, for actually doing it. The fact he was so deferential and eager with Trump himself makes it better that he was so plainly contemptuous of Kushner.There's good analysis of the interview at NYMag:Elsewhere in the interview, Kushner balked at a question regarding his confidant on the Saudi peninsula, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Axios reporter Jonathan Swan asked if Kushner would join Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée in calling on the Saudi government to be held accountable for the body of the slain American journalist. Read the rest

It shouldn't surprise anyone to learn that there's a species of nerd for everything. Food, film, ragtime nostalgia, astronomy - you name it. Well, if there are any design nerds out there, we have a gadget for you.As a matter of fact, we know there are design nerds out there because every year they congregate in a number of northwest cities to judge the Hot New Next design competition. And in Seattle, this miniature bit of gear took top honors in 2018 by packing a stunning amount of features into a tiny metal package: The Geekey Multi-Tool.It looks like a key, and is roughly the size of one - small enough to fit on your keychain and hide its many uses in plain sight. And while it may not unlock any doors in your home, there's not much else this tool won't open.We're talking a closed wrench that fits a number of metric and imperial sizes, plus a 1/4" open wrench and a bike spoke wrench for good measure. The head is a screwdriver that can fit Phillips, slotted or square heads, while also incorporating a scoring tool and can opener. In the middle, there's a 1/4" hex pocket bit driver, while the serrated edge serves as a file and a 1-inch ruler. As if that weren't enough, there's also a wire stripper, the requisite bottle opener, and the whole thing is just thick enough to serve as a discreet smoking pipe. And don't sell it short for any of these tasks due to its size: It's made of injection molded stainless steel, heat-treated to H900, which means it can work without blunting. Read the rest

David Kaye (previously) has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression since 2014 -- a critical half-decade in the evolution of free speech both online and offline; in Speech Police: The Global Struggle to Govern the Internet a new, short book from Columbia Special Reports, Kaye provides a snapshot of the global state of play for expression, as governments, platforms, and activists act out of a mix of both noble and corrupt motives to control online discourse.Kaye's work is informed by his compassion for the real problems of harassment and incitements to violence; his skepticism for the ways that profit, self-serving rationalization, and a desire to avoid political embarrassment all animate the drive to control online expression; and a sense of the real technical and procedural problems emerging from the drive to deputize the platforms to decide who may speak and what they may say.Speech Police documents the emergence of a system of shadow governance, in which our civics and politics have moved online, onto platforms that -- thanks to decades of antitrust malpractice -- control the ability of billions of people to discuss their views and mobilize to create change. And while governments are often critical of the failings of platforms to address all kinds of bad speech, from the glorification of terrorist atrocities to the spread of conspiracy theories to the enabling of campaigns of harassment and even genocide, these same governments are only too happy to entrust these platforms with even more public duties to police our speech, despite their incompetence to date. Read the rest

Writer Nicole Tersigni posted this amazing meme thread on Twitter where she juxtaposed well-known classic art images with the sort of common and clichéd sexism that modern women are all too familiar with."Calm down""There probably just weren't any qualified women for the job.""Thanks, I'm gay now" by Norman Rockwell."Let me explain your lived experience to you."See the entire thread here. Read the rest

We all have a favorite room, the one we spend more than half our waking hours in. Typically that's the living room. If you work from home, it might be the den or wherever you've set up a desk. If that's the case, doesn't it seem wasteful to make sure the entire house is the same temperature?Clearly, this question was on the minds of whoever made the Evapolar 2 - a smart, compact air conditioner that cheaply and efficiently keeps the room you like feeling the way you like it.And they're not alone: As we write this, the Evapolar's Indiegogo page has raised more than $1,119,000 - more than enough to put the innovative unit into production.That's good news for frugal homebodies. The Evapolar 2 uses a special nanofiber filter and proprietary tech to humidify the air as it cools, keeping an even temperature throughout any room. It's fully compatible with virtual assistants like Google Home and Amazon Alexa and best of all, it only uses 12.5 watts of power.You can grab the new Evapolar 2: Smart Personal Air Conditioner for $199, more than 25% off the list price. Take your pick of white, black, or gray Read the rest

If we were to pick one game out of the classic arcade pantheon that truly represented the anxiety and energy of the '80s, it would have to be Tempest. The neon vector graphics. The jackhammer pulse of the sound effects. And of course, the faceless, unstoppable enemies crawling up that tunnel to meet you. If you're old enough to remember it, you've probably lost several weeks worth of allowance money trying to beat it. This was the era when games did not care about your ego one bit, and if you think about Tempest at all, you might be harboring thoughts of revenge. Of taking that old machine down a peg or two.If so, the guys at Replicade are on your wavelength. Their latest arcade tribute is a working, fully playable 1:6 scale Tempest machine.These are the same guys that gave the shrink-ray treatment to Centipede a while back, and they're on a roll. All the features are here from the classic edition: Original art on the wood cabinet and the iconic spinner knob controller. (Replicade throws in replacement spinner caps for when your temper gets the best of you.) It's an officially licensed product by Atari, so it sports the same authenticity under the hood - original arcade ROM, including that level-select feature you remember from the opening screen. It even saves your high scores, and there's a special storage compartment hidden behind the coin slot. The Tempest x Replicade runs on an internal lithium-ion battery, easily rechargeable by USB. Read the rest

Roky Erickson, the pioneering psychedelic musician behind the 13th Floor Elevators, has died at age 71. A brilliant legend of Texas garage rock who struggled with schizophrenia and drug abuse, Erickson's far out lyrics, songs, and life had a tremendous influence on countless punk, psych, experimental, and avant-garde bands. Erickson moved culture. In 1966, Erickson unleashed the quintessential psych classic "You're Gonna Miss Me." He was right. RIP, Roky.(Variety) Read the rest

Multiple injuries in shooting at a municipal center in Virginia Beach, police say; shooter in custody.

You can't trust tech companies' word that the privacy controls they say they're implementing will protect you and your children. A Wall Street Journal study of 80 apps in Apple’s App Store shows that most apps, including ones selected and featured by Apple editors, are tracking you in ways you would not expect, and cannot avoid.The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern found apps that track kids, including *her* kid, and send their data to companies including Facebook and Google.Excerpt:Uhhh, Curious George? You got a little too curious this time.There’s a kids’ iOS app called Curious World that, not surprisingly, stars the cute little pants-less monkey. Turns out, the app was collecting my son’s age, name and every book he tapped, and sending that data to Facebook Inc.The company’s response? Whoopsies!Apple is reported to be planning to limit third-party tracking in kids' apps beginning next week. The company hasn't announced the change, but an unnamed source who knows told the WSJ it's happening: In fact, Apple will limit third-party tracking in apps in the Kids category of the App Store, according to a person familiar with the matter. Apple declined to comment on this, but a spokeswoman provided a statement: "For privacy and security reasons, Apple does not see what data users choose to share with developers and we can't see what developers do on their servers."More: iPhone Privacy Is Broken…and Apps Are to BlameYou know those “Apps We Love” in the App Store? Read the rest

Not THAT Mueller, the furry one. He has two Deputy Dawgs helping out.

In the realm of rocket geeks and space nerds, filmmakers MaryLiz Bender and Ryan Chylinski have dream jobs. The pair have the equivalent of "backstage passes" to SpaceX, NASA and ULA rocket launches where they capture and share breathtaking videos that convey the power, risk, and thrill of space exploration. The work of their studio, called Cosmic Perspective, is visceral, wondrous, and inspiring. Now Bender and Chylinski are creating a fascinating art book enhanced with augmented reality along with a companion short film "documenting humanity's grand adventure to space." Titled "Guidance Internal: Lessons from Astronauts," the book, film, and their touring Cosmic Perspective show lies at the intersection of science and art "to inspire hope, elevate empathy, and bring people together." They've launched a Kickstarter to support the project and it looks, well, stellar.From Kickstarter:The art and the pages in this book come to life immediately teleporting you to rocket launch pads, directly to our intimate interviews with astronauts and the people sending missions to space. We fuse art with science blending our love of high-dynamic range photography with compelling video to capture the emotion, excitement, and gravity of these events. We also give you a front-row seat to transformative performances by artists inspired by these experiences.We place autonomous high-resolution and ultra-high speed video cameras at the launchpads of SpaceX, NASA, and ULA. These are cameras we place well ahead of the liftoff, design to survive the elements and, since no humans can be anywhere near the rockets, trigger without any human interaction. Read the rest

Arrivederci, asshole. In Italy, authorities are reportedly evicting alt-right self-promoter Steve Bannon from the medieval monastery he'd planned to transform into a white supremacist radicalization academy, “after reports of fraud in the competitive tender process.”Being evicted from his fancy Italian gladiator castle is a big setback for Bannon, who's trying to grow an alt-right empire in Europe.Italy's La Repubblica newspaper reports today that the Italian government is saying “uh, no, grazie” to the Trump consigliere and global grifter's plans to turn a monastery near Rome into a training academy for would-be 21st-century Wehrmachters.Here's the official announcement from Italy’s cultural heritage ministry, Friday, May 31, saying the lease granted to Bannon has been revoked after reports of “fraud in the competitive tender process.” “The former Breitbart chief and aide to US president Donald Trump was reportedly paying €100,000 ($110,000) per year to rent the 13th Century Carthusian monastery, but now will have to search for another spot,” writes Luiz Romero, reporting for QZ.com:The Italian state allowed the conservative Catholic organization Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI) to use the building early last year. Bannon happens to be a trustee of the institute, and planned to convert the space into a “gladiator school for cultural warriors,” where students would learn philosophy, theology, history, and economics, and receive political training from the former Trump aide himself.But earlier this month, Italian newspaper Repubblica reported that a letter used to guarantee the lease was forged. The letter had the signature of an employee of Danish bank Jyske, but the bank said that employee hadn’t worked there for years, and called the letter fraudulent. Read the rest

I chanced upon Sheldon Ebbeler's hand-drawn fractals, and now plan on tattooing my entire torso, leaving only a tattered self-similar void around the navel. Read the rest

Dan Smith of Seattle contacted Car2Go (a short term car rental company that allows people to pick up and drop off cars anywhere) about one of their cars parked in his driveway. Car2Go didn't give him a satisfactory answer so he built a fence around the car and told Car2Go it would now have to pay him storage fees, a nuisance fee, and fence-building fees before they can get the car. Smith told the Q13 news station in Seattle that Car2Go is accusing him of stealing the car.Image: Q13 Fox/YouTube[via Digg] Read the rest

Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law "relating to the criminal consequences of engaging in certain conduct with respect certain instruments designed, made, or adapted for use in striking a person with a fist." The law strikes "knuckles" from a list of prohibited weapons that a person can't "intentionally or knowingly possesses, manufactures, transports, repairs, or sells." The Texas Penal Code defines "knuckles" in this context as "any instrument that consists of finger rings or guards made of a hard substance and that is designed, made, or adapted for the purpose of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by striking a person with a fist enclosed in the knuckles."From CNN:Rep. Joe Moody, a Democratic legislator from El Paso who sponsored the bill told the Texas Standard... "A young woman who has a keychain for self defense, certainly fits the statute of knuckles. And she was arrested for that."Supporters of the bill argued "knuckles are primarily a defensive tool," the summary says, and shouldn't be associated with "explosive weapons, machine guns, and other prohibited weapons."The law comes after lawmakers previously removed switchblades from that same banned list in 2013."Law abiding Texans who carry knuckles, perhaps as part of a novelty key chain, should not be vulnerable to jail time for possessing a legitimate self defense tool," the summary says."It's now legal to carry brass knuckles in Texas. Because, 'self-defense'" (CNN)image: uncredited via Wikipedia Read the rest

Wild Earth is a dog food start-up in Berkeley, California. It specializes in dog food made from the Aspergillus oryzae fungus, known as koji in Japan. Koji is used to make "soy sauce and fermented bean paste (including miso), and also to saccharify rice, other grains, and potatoes in the making of alcoholic beverages such as sake and shōchū." [Wikipedia]. Chemical & Engineering News reports that Wild Earth recently secured $11 million in VC funding from "VegInvest, Mars Petcare, and other backers." This looks like a great snack for people, too.Image: Wild Earth Read the rest

Again with the military and the sky penises. Last time I posted about this, it was Navy pilots pulling a prank over the state of Washington. This week, it was Air Force fighter jets over Arizona's Luke Air Force Base and the official statement is that it was an "accident." From CNN:"We've seen the photos that have been circulating online from Tuesday afternoon. 56th Fighter Wing senior leadership reviewed the training tapes from the flight and confirmed that F-35s conducting standard fighter training maneuvers ... resulted in the creation of the contrails," an Air Force spokesperson told CNN. "There was no nefarious or inappropriate behavior during the training flight." Read the rest

Friends, don't eat slugs and snails you find on trails in Hawaii. And while you're at it, make sure to wash lettuce leaves thoroughly to get rid of slug and snail excretions. Failure to heed these warnings could result in rat lungworms that dig into your brain and cause "neurological problems, severe pain and long-term disability."From Ars Technica:The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed three new cases in unrelated adults visiting Hawaii Island from the US mainland, the health department announced. The latest known victims—who became infected at different times—bring the state’s 2018 case total to 10 and the 2019 total to five.While there were 17 confirmed cases in 2017, the state counted only two cases total in the prior decade. The new case counts indicate a sustained boom in the parasite’s population and spread.The parasitic worm in these cases is the rat lungworm, aka Angiostrongylus cantonensis. As its common name suggests, the wandering worm primarily takes up residence in rats’ lungs, where female worms lay their eggs. Young worms leave the nest early to find their own windy homes, though. Larvae get coughed up into rats’ throats then swallowed. The hosting rat eventually poops out the young parasites, which then get gobbled up by feces-feasting snails and slugs (intermediate hosts). When other rodents come along and eat those infected mollusks, the prepubescent parasites migrate to the rats’ brains to mature before settling into the lungs and reproducing. The cycle then starts again. Read the rest

Who needs V'ger? This scene of Kirk and Scotty made the entire movie for me. Read the rest

In 1965, two years before Nico made the Warhol/Factory scene with the Velvet Underground and released her first solo LP "Chelsea Girl," she recorded this cover of Gordon Lightfoot's "I'm Not Sayin'." According to Wikipedia, "This version of the song features Jimmy Page, then a studio musician, on the 12-string guitar. Nico's version was produced by Rolling Stones multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones and the promo film was shot at West India Docks in London." Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham released the track as a 7" backed with "The Last Mile," written by Oldham and Page. Read the rest

I put a collar emblazoned with owls on my Cavalier King Charles spaniel, thus combining two things I love.I can't get a good shot of said owl collar on Zuul, cause she is too fuzzy. They come in sizes for many, if not all, dogs.The Pyrenees got some gingham bs my kid choose, but it looks good on him.dogsBuckle-Down Plastic Clip Collar - Owls Striped w/Swirls Purple via Amazon Read the rest

This 1950s era Wonder lamp was purchased at a flea market in France. It's fun to watch this guy restore it to sparkling condition, but now I really want a sandblaster.Image: my mechanics/YouTube Read the rest

This fantastic documentary must be watched. I love these guys. Read the rest

Ken Cuccinelli is probably going to be confirmed soon as Donald Trump's new head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He once praised and amplified a racist rant attacking Muslims by Brigitte Tudor, aka Brigitte Gabriel, a prominent anti-Muslim organizer based in the United States. That's not good.Cuccinelli was a former Attorney General in my home state of Virginia. Progressive voters in Virginia know all about him.Brigitte Tudor — aka Brigitte Gabriel — is the founder of ACT for America, the largest grassroots anti-Muslim group in the country. Cuccinelli's a big fan.From MMFA:Cuccinelli is a right-wing commentator and former Virginia attorney general who will reportedly be appointed as the new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of DHS. Cuccinelli has a history of anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigrant rhetoric and positions.Gabriel is the head of the anti-Muslim group ACT for America. Media outlets have called her “the most influential leader in America’s increasingly influential anti-Islam lobby” and “America's most prominent anti-Muslim activist.” Gabriel has a long history of anti-Muslim statements, including claiming that “a practicing Muslim … cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States,” and saying that Muslims in Europe “started multiplying” after World War II and did not assimilate and that Europe is now “paying the price” because it “ignored the cancer growing within its body when it was at Stage Two.”The Heritage Foundation hosted a June 16, 2014, panel event about the 2012 Benghazi attacks featuring Gabriel and fellow anti-Muslim commentators Frank Gaffney and Clare Lopez. Read the rest

On May 21, the American Law Institute -- a kind of star chamber of 4,000 judges, law professors, and lawyers -- was scheduled to pass a "restatement" of the law of consumer contracts, with the plan being to codify case-law to ensure that terms of service would be treated as enforceable obligations by US courts.This would have led to a virtual ban on class action suits, and would have severely curtailed the role of courts in hearing legal complaints brought by members of the public who had been harmed or lied to by corporations, replacing them with binding arbitration kangaroo courts where the "judge" is working for the company that wronged you.The normally obscure workings of the ALI drew unprecedented attention over the move, with a bipartisan coalition of 23 states' Attorneys General publicly denouncing the plan, along with consumer rights groups and other campaigners. The pressure worked! When the ALI sat down to finalize it at their meeting on the 21st, virtually the entire four-hour debate slot was taken up with a debate over the first of nine sections; debate began on the second section but time ran out before it could come to a vote.A year from now, the ALI will sit again and could take up the matter once more. Although the meeting agenda had assigned a four-hour session for consideration of the Restatement, only the first of the Restatement’s nine sections reached a vote. Section One contains the Restatement’s definitions and describes its scope. Read the rest

If Donald Trump's bag man Bill Barr weren't such a malevolent son of a bitch, this wild quote of his from a CBS News interview would sound something like wisdom.“Everyone dies and I am not, you know, I don't believe in the Homeric idea that you know, immortality comes by, you know, having odes sung about you over the centuries, you know?"They're some soul-less bastards, these Trump administration slimeballs.From CBS News:Asked by CBS News' Jan Crawford about concerns over his reputation for defending the president amid ongoing probes into the administration's alleged ties to the Russian government and claims that Mr. Trump obstructed justice, Barr appeared indifferent."I am at the end of my career," Barr said. "Everyone dies and I am not, you know, I don't believe in the Homeric idea that you know, immortality comes by, you know, having odes sung about you over the centuries, you know?" Barr, who previously served in the George H.W. Bush administration, is only the second attorney general in history who's served in that capacity twice. The first was back in 1850. He said he knew it would "only be a matter of time" that he would be attacked for what he considers is "behaving responsibly and calling them as I see them." He argued "nowadays, people don't care about the merits and the substance.""They only care about who it helps, who benefits, whether my side benefits or the other side benefits, everything is gauged by politics. Read the rest

Joe Stiglitz (previously) holds a Nobel Prize in Economics (not an actual Nobel Prize), and has been an outspoken critic of the rigged economy and austerity.Now, in a new editorial for Common Dreams, Stiglitz calls neoliberalism "an ideology that has clearly failed" and goes on to try to rescue capitalism from neoliberalism, calling for support for "progressive capitalism...which prescribes a radically different economic agenda,"Stiglitz's progressive capitalism calls for a stronger role for the state in subjecting markets to democratic oversight; an emphasis on science-led, evidence-based policies that favor benefits for the many over enriching the few; breaking up monopolies; and shielding politics from financial corruption. It's a platform very similar to Elizabeth Warren's 2020 election playbook, and can be seen as an attempt to establish a new centrism that's far to the left of the likes of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, sitting between their positions and the positions of Sanders, AOC, and other socialists who are skeptical of markets entirely.A comprehensive agenda must focus on education, research, and the other true sources of wealth. It must protect the environment and fight climate change with the same vigilance as the Green New Dealers in the US and Extinction Rebellion in the United Kingdom. And it must provide public programs to ensure that no citizen is denied the basic requisites of a decent life. These include economic security, access to work and a living wage, health care and adequate housing, a secure retirement, and a quality education for one’s children. Read the rest

Since January, Google has been pushing for a change to its extensions handling in Chrome; one casualty of that change is ability to block unwanted content before its loads, something that would effectively kill privacy tools and ad-blockers.After a public outcry, Google has tweaked the change, but only for enterprise customers, who will have access to an API that will allow this kind of blocking. That means that corporations will be able to develop internal-use plugins that do the kind of screening that adblockers do for the rest of us today.Google has warned investors that "New and existing technologies could affect our ability to customize ads and/or could block ads online, which would harm our business," and ad blocker developers like Raymond Hill of Ublock Origin have speculated that "Google’s primary business is incompatible with unimpeded content blocking. Now that Google Chrome product has achieve high market share, the content blocking concerns as stated in its 10K filing are being tackled."Google denies this, and says "We’re actively working with the developer community to get feedback and iterate on the design of a privacy-preserving content filtering system that limits the amount of sensitive browser data shared with third parties."Chrome is the dominant browser on the web today, and even though it is nominally open source, Google has used a suite of tricks to ensure that it gets to decide who can adapt it and what features those adaptations can have.Firefox is available for virtually every OS -- mobile and desktop -- and supports full ad-blocking. Read the rest